Valeo IP plans to cease operations

Published on July 01, 2005.

Minneapolis—Valeo IP informed its employees on Wednesday that the company is shutting down but will continue through September to support its customers, which include sites such as Forbes.com, according to an internal e-mail obtained by BtoB.

Valeo IP, which provides online copyright protection to publishers, is enmeshed in a lawsuit with Seattle-based DataDepth, the company that developed the copyright tag software used by Valeo. In May, Corey Johnson, Valeo’s president, left the company.

John Blossom, president-senior analyst for research firm Shore Communications, wrote in his company’s blog on Thursday, "While on the surface this is a victory for Data Depth Corp. and its investors, it is a victory that came at a fairly high price. Both Data Depth’s and Valeo IP’s efforts and reputations became damaged in this test of wills… ."

At deadline, neither Valeo nor DataDepth had responded to requests for comment.